The best cycling apps will help you to🌄 plan, navigate and record your ride🌄s and even help maintain your bike
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The best cycling apps can cover all you♒r cycling needs, either for 🐎free or for a small subscription.
You can plan your rides and get route ideas from other riders, then navigate your route. While you're riding, you can record wher🐈e you've been, how fast and with how much effort and you can keep a record of this longer term to see trends. You can also allow others to keep track of where you are and there are apps which will call for help if you have a crash.
The best cycling apps don't just cover outdoor riding either and can control your smart trainer, allowing you to follow interval routines or ride with people around the world. We have a separate article focussing on the 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:best indoor cycling apps though, so here we'll suggest some of the ꦏbest cycling apps that we use to improve our training and our cycling enjoyment in general.
(Image credit: komoot)
1. Komoot
The best route planning app for all terrains
Reasons to buy
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Detailed route planning
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Social side
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Route suggestions and sharing
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Interfaces with many bike computers
Reasons to avoid
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Need to pay for out-of-region access
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Need a subscription for premium features
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(Image credit: MapMyRide)
2. MapMyRide
Mapping and tracking of more than just bike rides
Reasons to buy
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The free tier gives almost as much functionality as paid tiers in other apps
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Additional functionality not offered by Strava
Reasons to avoid
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No segment leaderboards
MapMꦡyRide allows users to create, find, and track rides and routes for more than 600 different types of activities. The free app is nearly on par with Strava, but with one key feature lacking: segment leaderboards. But, what MapMyRide Premium users gain is a number of features not offered on Strava: personalised training plans, audible feedback, and mid-ride performance updates. MapMyRide offers a crisp set 𝐆of features across the board, with a free version that challenges the premium models of its competitors.
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(Image credit: Alltrails)
3. Alltrails
Huge user base and collection of trail maps
Reasons to buy
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Huge number of trails mapped worldwide
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Free route guidance
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Links to Garmin Connect app
Reasons to avoid
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Off-road focus
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Off-course alerts only with paid tier
Alltrails claims to have a user base of over 50 million and have over 400,000 trails worldwide mapped out♛, with directions, maps, photos and more. Most trails have extensive user feedback, so you kno🐎w what you're getting yourself into. Alltrails was awarded iPhone app of the year in 2023.
Although you'll need to sign up for the premium version to get offline maps, off-route alerts and other features, on-trail navigation is free anඣd you can now send routes to Gaꦿrmin Connect.
The routes are geared towards off-road use and many are hiking trails rather than for cycling, b♛ut they're a good resource if you're planning a ride in a new location nevertheless.
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(Image credit: Strava)
4. Strava
The most popular cycling app and the king of comparison
Reasons to buy
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Ability to challenge yourself and compete against other users
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Ride logging functionality built-in
Reasons to avoid
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Need to pay for performance analysis functionality
Segments made Strava one of the most popular cycling apps in the world, but it also hosts a number of features includ🧸ing route planning, heat maps, and one-touch recording. You need a paid subscription to access some functionality, includin🐬g route planning and full segment leaderboards. This costs £55 ($80) per year. Free users can still upload rides to Strava, define segments and follow any one of the 50 million users on the platform and see their top ten times on any segment.
Heat maps – colour-coded maps that show you which roads are most popular among Strava activities from the past two years – are unique to Strava and contain a wealth of knowledge that no other platform can match. This feature, coupled with route pla✃nning, can help users map a safe and scenic route ꦯsomewhere they’ve never ridden before.
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(Image credit: Training Peaks)
5. TrainingPeaks
The ultimate fitness tracking app for endurance athletes
Reasons to buy
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Broad fitness analysis toolbox
Reasons to avoid
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Need premium tier for in-depth analysis
There is hardly a limit to what TrainingPeaks can do⭕ when it comes to tracking and analysing your fitness. Carefully calculated algorithms predict fitness, fatigue, and fo🌊rm using an equally complicated set of acronyms, including CTL (Chronic Training Load), TSB (Training Stress Balance), and everyone’s favourite: TSS (Training Stress Score). Competitors have struggled to match both the in-depth analysis that TrainingPeaks offers, as well as its massive following among coaches and athletes alike.
Users can view and upload workouts, see their overall fitness summary, and connect with training plans or coaches, all with the free version of the app. Premium users gain access to in-depth workout and peak performance analysis, unlimited workout libraries, the ability to build an entire prospective training plan, and much more. TrainingPeaks is the ideal platform for any serious endurance athlete looking to keep track of their training 🍃and fitness.
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(Image credit: Garmin)
6. Garmin Connect
Total integration of fitness and ride stats for Garmin users
Reasons to buy
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Full range of on and off-bike metrics
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Heatmaps of popular routes
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Tight integration with Garmin devices
Reasons to avoid
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Works best for Garmin users
If you're a Garmin user, Garmin Connect lets you keep tabs on all your cycling data. It works even better if you have a Garmin 澳洲幸运5开奖官网在线查询开奖结果:smartwatch, keeping track of off-bike action, sleep and even your menstrual cycle. Although you can upload non-Garmin activities, it works best with the Garmin kℱit though.
There's a load of other functionality built in that's great for cyclists: everything from route planniꦛng, which uses Garmin heatmaps to keep you to cycle-friendly routes to training schedules if you're aiming to peak for a specific event.
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(Image credit: Wahoo)
7. Wahoo Fitness
Free fitness tracking app for over 30 types of activities
Reasons to buy
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Zero cost tracking app
Reasons to avoid
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Need a Wahoo Elemnt cycling computer to unlock the full potential
What sets this app apart from its competitors is its functional diversity at zero cost. The Wahoo Fitness app allows users to sync workouts from a variety of activities, including those with paired devices such as heart rate monitors, cadence sensors, power meters and smart turbo trainers. Users have access to their heart rate and power training zones, as well as adjustable audio alerts. It can then be connected with other accounts, enabling users to upload activities to a co♓mmunity feed such as in Strava.
Having a Wahoo Elemnt head unit an༺d its companion Wahoo Elemnt app increases its versatility, by adding features such as route planning, workouts, and shareable live tracking.
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(Image credit: muuvr)
8. Muuvr
Motivation to exercise and free stuff as a reward
Reasons to buy
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Tracks all your activity to accumulate points
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Points can be exchanged for free physical items
Reasons to avoid
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Doesn't link up to Strava
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Need to work out a lot to earn much
If you struggle to keep motivated, how about earning free stuff for every workout that you do, both on bike and off? Muuvr tracks your activities and rewards you with points, called Muuvs. These accrue in the background and can be swapped for a whole range of physical products𝕴 from cycling mitts to wetsuits to event entries.
The app tots up your points in the background so you don't need to use yet another app to log your rides. Although it doesn't link to Strava, which tends to be most people's default repository, you can hook up to Garmin Conn💜ect, Wahoo, Apple Fitness and more.
You'll need to keep at it to earn enough points to swap for anything much, which might be a good or a bad thing, depending on your vi🐼ewpointꦬ, but since it's free stuff, who's to complain?
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(Image credit: Rain Alarm)
9. Rain Alarm
See the storm coming before it’s too late
Reasons to buy
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Simple to use alert of rain approaching
Reasons to avoid
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Ads with free version
This app operates exactly as advertised – Rain Ala🎉rm alerts you when rain is approaching. The free version of the app will mark your location and display an easy-to-read radar that shows you precisely where it&rsquoไ;s raining.
If the weather is spotty and you’re still u𒊎nsure, you can use the premium version to turn on alarms which will alert you when heavy rain is approaching – these alarms also sync with Android watches for added convenience. The simplicity of Rain Alarm puts it above🎶 its weather-focused competitors, with quick updates every 5-10 minutes to help you stay dry.
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(Image credit: web-engineer)
10. Tyre Pressure app
Simple to use tyre pressure calculator
Reasons to buy
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Easy to use tyre pressure guide
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Keeps data for multiple bikes
Reasons to avoid
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Tyre pressure suggestions don't align with some other apps
If you want a quick guide to your tyr✤e pressure, this app from web-engineer is easy to use, with just a few inputs for you and your bike. If you've got a shed full of bikes, it will allow you to set each up individually, so you don't need to faff around when you change bikes.
The pressure recommendations are quite a lot higher at the rear than at the front, which doesn't concur with some other apps, such as . The app does suggest that its recommendations are just a starting point though, so you may want to﷽ try them to see, then go from there.
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(Image credit: CeramicSpeed)
11. CeramicSpeed app
Keep track of maintenance schedules for all your bikes
Reasons to buy
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Automatically logs distance ridden from Strava data
Reasons to avoid
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Functionality is still fairly limited
The CeramicSpeed app pulls your ride data from your Strava account to keep a tally of how far you've ridden and how long it is since your last service and alert you when you need to arrange a check of your chain for wear and a service of youඣr bottom bracket bearings.
You can accept the app's default values or set yoꦕur own and the app distinguishes bཧetween road, gravel and other bikes, with different service intervals for each.
There's also a handlebar alignment checker which uses your phone's cam🔯era to assess whether your bars are pointing straight ahead and CeramicSpeed promises more functionality to come.
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(Image credit: Bike Gear Calculator)
12. Bike Gear Calculator
Fascinating gearing comparison for the more mechanically inclined cyclists
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(Image credit: IFRC)
13. First Aid – IFRC
Know what to do when something goes wrong
Reasons to buy
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Broad range of first aid advice
Reasons to avoid
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Once an accident happens may not be the best time to find out what to do
Crashes happen, and it’s important to know what to do when a rider goes down. And if you don’t know what to do, it is pretty amazing that you can have an app in your pocket that will walk you through first aid procedures for almost any situation. This free app includes first-aid guidance for bleeding, broken bones, head injuries, heatstroke, panic attacks, and more. There’s even advice for dealing 🔯with disasters such as wildfires, tornadoes, heat waves, and power outages. Downloading this app is a no-brainer: it’s free, and it could help save a life.
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How to personalise your catalogue of cycling apps
What are your goals as a cyclist?
Are you riding or training? This simple question will help you determine if you should download a fitness tracking app like Wahoo or TrainingPeaks. Bike riders don’t necessarily need to track their fitness – they just want a safe and beautiful road to ride. Bike racers, on th🅰e other hand, want to know how hard their ride was, how their fitness is improving, and how to peak for their goal event. Fitness tracking apps take much of the guesswork out of training by p෴roviding structured workouts and long-term plans to help us reach our fitness goals.
What types of roads do you have nearby?
꧅If you live in the city, route planning is going to be more intentional than exploratory. Features like Strava’s heat map and user-uploaded routes on MapMyRide can help you find the most popular bike routes and cycleways, which typically avoid traffic-laden roads. But if you live out in the country – with trails, paths, mountains, and single track to choose from – an exploratory app like Komoot could be the perfect tool to help fuel your adventure.
Are you more of a social cyclist, or a solo rider?
One of the key features of many of these apps is that they allow us to connect with thousands – and sometimes millions – of other 𝓡cyclists aroওund the world. How else could you directly compete against a Tour de France winner other than challenging his KOM on a Strava segment?
We can even keep tabs on other riders’ training – from the WorldTour pros to your friend that lives down the street. Apps such as Strava and MapMyRide allow millions of cyclists to interact from aroundꦓ the world, including sharing routes and comparing times on both segments and entire courses.
Solo riders can find everything they need in route planning apps such as Komoot and Strava, from designing✤ epic adventures to optimising their morning commute.
Do you want maintenance and mechanical help?
If you plan to do your own maintenance or you just want to keep tabs on what needs doing when, or if you want to fine-tune your bike and ride position, then an app which covers these as well as your actual riding can help keep everything workin🎃g at its best.
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Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes 🔜and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since wel෴l before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
